T-Mobile launches Simple Global data, destroys roaming data bill

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Yesterday, T-Mobile’s newest Uncarrier initiative went live, expanding the effective coverage for T-Mobile customers to over 100 countries worldwide. In these countries, T-Mobile customers no longer have to worry about excessive roaming bills and can truly afford to communicate while traveling the world. From now on, when T-Mobile customers that have the Simple Choice plan visit any of the 115 global destinations (countries and their territories) covered under “Simple Global Roaming,” T-Mobile customers can use basic data services for free and text for free.

These 115 destinations, separated by region, are:

North America & Caribbean

Anguilla

Antigua and Barbuda

Aruba

Barbados

Bermuda

Bonaire

British Virgin Islands

Canada

Cayman Islands

Curaçao (Netherlands/Dutch Antilles)

Dominica

Dominican Republic

Grenada

Guadeloupe

Jamaica

Martinique

Mexico

Montserrat

Netherlands Antilles

Sint Maarten

St. Barthelemy

St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Lucia

St. Martin

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

Turks and Caicos Islands

Central America & South America

Argentina

Bolivia

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Easter Island

Ecuador

El Salvador

French Guiana

Guatemala

Guyana

Nicaragua

Panama

Peru

Suriname

Uruguay

Venezuela

Europe

Aland Islands

Armenia

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

Estonia

Faeroe Islands

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Moldova

Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Russia

Slovakia

Spain

Svalbard

Sweden

Switzerland

Turkey

Ukraine

United Kingdom

Vatican City

Africa & Middle East

Bahrain

Egypt

Ghana

Iraq

Israel

Kenya

Kuwait

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

United Arab Emirates

Zambia

Asia & Oceania

Australia

Cambodia

China

Christmas Island

Hong Kong

India

Indonesia

Japan

Malaysia

New Zealand

Pakistan

Philippines

Singapore

South Korea

Sri Lanka

Taiwan

Thailand

Turkmenistan

Uzbekistan

Vietnam

In these areas, T-Mobile customers on the Simple Choice plan have access to free data roaming and texting. When roaming in these countries, T-Mobile customers will get data throughput up to 128Kbps for free, regardless of the network technology. That means that T-Mobile customers will have access to 3G networks if they are available, but the bandwidth will be limited unless customers purchase high-speed data passes. As far as we know, latency should not be affected by the throttling.

If customers want to have access to the highest speeds available on these networks, they can buy “International Data Roaming Passes.” T-Mobile’s international data roaming passes come in three versions:

100MB for a day for $15

200MB for a week for $25

500MB for two weeks for $50

The hidden value of T-Mobile’s roaming package is that the vast majority of Eastern European and African, Middle Eastern, and Asian destinations do not have broad 3G networks, let alone 4G networks. 128Kbps is likely all you would get in most of these destinations anyway, so the data passes are not needed as much. If extra speed is needed and available, the data pass can provide that access. T-Mobile customers will be automatically enrolled in Simple Global roaming on October 31. However, customers can manually enroll in the plan starting from today.

Now, 4G networks are not yet available through roaming because most of T-Mobile’s roaming partners do not have LTE roaming infrastructure in place yet. In order to efficiently enable LTE roaming, operators need to deploy support for IPX (IP Exchange) hubs that enable bridging LTE networks. The alternative is to create tailored direct bridges between the home and roaming network (Sprint and C Spire Wireless have done this to provide LTE roaming for C Spire customers), which is horribly inefficient and can be prohibitively expensive to do for all roaming partners. That means that travelers will need to use a local SIM card for 4G network access, for now.

Despite that, T-Mobile’s new global roaming options are a great value to a large variety of people. Businessmen, tourists, and immigrants who frequently travel in and out of the US should strongly consider T-Mobile’s Simple Global roaming for stints around the world.

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I pay 35+tax for talk+text, & 2gb data. If Tmo had anything comparable I’d switch even though I’m in Canada. All I need normal data for it pushing email, and weather.

I’d put up with no data on bus or get a car anyway. Youtube songs will load with 128, and otherwise I’m at college with wifi.

Overall, good job though T-MO maybe this will help stop the 10k in one day roaming charges from Rogers.

Few years ago I almost got charged 250 because some lady kept texting me and I was charged for recieving them. WTF!

VirtualMark

So, is $100+ per Gb supposed to be a good deal?

Singh1699

you get unlimited data at 128. It’s nothing like what tmo offers for people roaming into USA ($2/$3 per day depending on data speed) but compare it to others.

edit – Either way these companies are full of shit and competition/stuff like this will make them better.

I’m switching internet providers atm, and one throttles during peak hours the other doesn’t. One claims it is due to congestion, yet they use the same infrastructure. lol

Joel Detrow

Sounds like a good enough deal to me – one could download 11 gigs in a 24 hour period at that rate. All I would like to use mobile data for anyway is keeping up with web articles like this one or playing my music through Pandora or Google Play, so 128 would be plenty.

Marge Dean

This is a scam. i saw this press release, and called t mobile to sign up. got a sim card and a new number, and am now traveling internationally. Well, guess what? After days of frustration, finally used skype to all t mobile tech support — they don’t actually have agreements in most countries. Where I am, this ‘simple choice’ plan only allows me to RECIEVE calls. i can’t make calls. Think about that! I have an ‘international plan’ but I can’t actually make telephone calls. This is a scam.

Me

I am in Malaysia, using my T-mobile as if am in the US.. So its not a scam!

paul

I am in Australia using my phone as if I’m in los Angeles. It’s amazing. My speeds are fairly fast for roaming. My status bar flashes 4g sometimes. I check my account on the internet just to be sure. And it’s legit and working and no extra charge. And u can male wi fi calls to the USA at no extra charge. It works. It’s amazing. This changes everything.

paul

I am in Australia using my phone as if I’m in los Angeles. It’s amazing. My speeds are fairly fast for roaming. My status bar flashes 4g sometimes. I check my account on the internet just to be sure. And it’s legit and working and no extra charge. And u can male wi fi calls to the USA at no extra charge. It works. It’s amazing. This changes everything.

Mars

Does anyone know if their coverage is good in japan? I’m studying abroad in Japan next semester, and their unlimited texting and data are quite enticing. But I want to make sure I would actually have service

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